Indi Mclymont Lafayette (right), regional coordinator for Panos Caribbean, in discussion with Clifford Mahlung, coordinator for capacity building with the Alliance of Small Island States, at the Peru climate talks on Wednesday. (Photo: Petre Williams-Raynor)

Panos Caribbean\'s Regional Director shares lens time with Amerindians from Lima,Peru.
Panos is one of the civil society organisations attending the United Nations Climate talks in Peru. The talks end on
December 12.

Two Jamaican journalists, of Advanced Media Productions: (Kemorine Sinclair and Kim Ber Ley also of Caribbean Stories) listened intently as a fisherman of Rocky Point, Clarendon, explained the changes he and others have noticed about the beach where they fish to make a living. The visit to the beach was one of two field trips during a one-day journalism workshop on March 29, 2011 on climate change and biodiversity held in Mocho, Clarendon by the Mocho Community Development Association, (MCDA) and Panos Caribbean. Fishermen in Jackson Bay have been complaining that the beach is disappearing. It has not been determined if this is linked to sea level rise or storm surge or if it is as a result of climate change. The workshop among several community intervention activities under a 15 month project funded by Global Environment Facility Small Grant Programme and the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica.

Panos Caribbean & CCMP – Durban, South Africa, December 2011 -As Climate Change talks enter the second week in Durban, South Africa, Jamaican journalist Carol Francis of Jamaica News Network, JNN, talks to fishermen from the Greenwich Beach Fishing Village in Kingston, Jamaica about how climate change has affected their trade. Carol is one of several journalists from the Caribbean currently attending the global two-week conference.

The serious impact of climate change is felt more severely by those most vulnerable to the global phenomenon and persons in small, rural communities in the Caribbean are among those who will be most affected.

Stanford Gordon, who has been a fisherman for more than 30 years explained that things are so bad that he is seriously thinking about giving up fishing.

According to Gordon, warming coastal waters, and the destruction of coral reefs have seen their catches dwindle. Increasingly frequent hurricanes often means it’s too dangerous to go to sea. Many fear what the future holds.

“We having more storms than years ago and it destroy the coral on the bottom of the sea,’ one of the fishermen explained.

“It mash up fisherman life of living! And nobody cares for us! Nobody!” Another declared bitterly.

Listen to the fishermen talk about the crisis they are facing here: [audio:http://panoscaribbean.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Jamaican-Fishermen-Lament-the-Impacts-of-Climate-Change-PANOS-CCMP.mp3|titles=Jamaican Fishermen Lament the Impacts of Climate Change PANOS-CCMP]

One Jamaican teenager shares his battle with addiction to marijuana. He admits that he developed his addiction by smoking discarded stubs of the joints his father left lying around the house. He also admits that smoking marijuana is bad for his health but reveals that he is powerless to stop.

“Yes, I do know it’s not good for my health but it give me a ‘meds’ and mi like it. Without having the meds (Marijuana smoking gives me) mi can’t do nuttin! It help mi fi do everything that mi have fi do!”

Approximately 10,000 children in the Caribbean are HIV positive. Panos For Kids is a 5-minute radio programme which adds a crucial aspect to the region’s development agenda and feeds into public debate and action to address issues that affect children.

Children and young people are sometimes severely affected by HIV and AIDS, but their voices are often missing from discussions and debates about the issue.

Access to Treatment, Prevention and Care is a crucial challenge that children who are HIV positive face, as, it is only recently that HIV medication (paediatric Anti-retrovirals – ARVs) became available worldwide.

Even so, access to paedriatic Anti-retrovirals is still a major challenge in developing countries such as Jamaica and other countries in the Caribbean which usually face challenges with healthcare and funding for HIV and AIDS treatment programmes.

HIV-related stigma and discrimination is also another major issue that impact children and young people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. This sometimes negatively affects their mental and emotional development including self esteem as well as their social interaction and adjustment including their educational achievements.

The short radio programmes and Public Service Announcements, PSAs, are among the media productions developed by a group of 20 children and young people who participated in Panos Caribbean’s Youth Journalism programme in Jamaica between 2006 and 2009.

The programmes were broadcast on Jamaica and regional radio stations and disseminated online.

Panos For Kidz seeks to positively impact public perception of the issues and stimulate useful debate with an aim to change harmful and incorrect perception about HIV and AIDS and persons directly impacted by the illness.

The group is part of Panos Caribbean’s Youth Journalism Programme which the organization began in 2006 in Haiti and Jamaica. Panos has established a total of 16 Youth Journalism Groups in the region, two of which are in Jamaica. One is located in Kingston and the other in Mocho, Clarendon. The group in Clarendon focuses on the environment while the one in Kingston focuses on HIV related issues affecting children and young people as well as Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Click The audio files below to listen to the radio programmes and Public Service Announcements, (PSAs)
[audio:http://panoscaribbean.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/31-YANIQUE.mp3|titles=31 - YANIQUE]